Old Man Fanxin breathed a sigh of relief upon hearing that answer.
Yet, looking at the Holy Mother of Inedia, he pressed on, "Inedia, your complexion doesn't look very good. Would you like this old man to examine you?"
Beside her, Qi Yuan whispered into her ear, "Tell him you can eat seven fish in a single meal and that your body is in top shape!"
All Qi Yuan cared about right now was quickly feeding her to nurse her back to health.
That way, once the Heavenly Pillar was repaired, he could continue visualizing.
"I can eat seven fish in one sitting. My health is fine, so there is no need to trouble you all. Please take your leave." The woman in the red dress spoke with a stiff tone, clearly seeing off her guests.
Old Man Fanxin's expression turned odd.
For some reason, he felt that the Holy Mother of Inedia was acting rather strange today.
"Please do not miss the battle at the Shenglong Arena, Holy Mother. The destiny of the Mortal Heart Realm rests upon it!" Old Man Fanxin emphasized once more.
"Mm." With that, the Holy Mother of Inedia vanished, returning into the Heavenly Pillar.
She left behind a crowd of bewildered Ancient Gods.
"Is that truly the Holy Mother of Inedia?"
"Strange. It looked as though she was conversing with someone just now."
"You sensed it as well?"
The Venerables broke into fervent discussion.
Old Man Fanxin also frowned. "This old man felt the same, and yet... I failed to detect anyone."
Old Man Fanxin was a Mythological entity. Within the Mortal Heart Realm, no one should have been able to conceal themselves before his eyes.
His name even had two more "trees" than Fanxin, a testament to his profound strength.
Beside him, Great Venerable Lingzhong seemed to realize something, freezing in place.
*Could it be...*
Worry filled his heart; he couldn't shake the feeling that matters were far from simple.
Meanwhile, Qi Yuan followed the Holy Mother of Inedia back to the bamboo cottage.
Qi Yuan sighed wistfully. "Alas, my lifetime of glorious reputation is ruined. To think I spent a day as a thief! If I'd stolen something respectable—immortal pills, a fairy's undergarments, or a divine armor of a Heavenly God—at least I'd keep some dignity. Instead, I stole pots and pans!"
When he and the Holy Mother arrived nearby earlier, every shop had its doors bolted shut, closed for business.
Faced with that, the Holy Mother had simply walked inside and taken the pots and pans.
She was exceedingly domineering.
"They worship me, and I protect them. These can be counted as offerings." For once, the Holy Mother argued back.
"Forget it, none of that matters. Let's make braised fish!" Qi Yuan urged, feeling somewhat impatient.
Once the Holy Mother's condition improved, he could get back to visualizing.
In truth, he was curious too.
Why did eating a little food repair the Heavenly Pillar?
And why didn't she eat normally?
Now he had the chance to see what was really going on.
"Alright."
"Finally, I get to be a fountain commander!" Qi Yuan said with great anticipation.
Soon, under Qi Yuan's guidance, the Holy Mother caught seven fish.
First came gutting and cleaning them, followed by scraping off the scales.
Sitting to the side, Qi Yuan directed her with relish. "That kitchen knife was a waste of money; it'll probably go back to gathering dust."
"Right, scrape more thoroughly. There's still half a scale left there."
"Cooking is all about color, aroma, and taste. The fish chunks you cut are completely uneven—your knife work is terrible."
"Too few chili peppers. Add more."
"Sigh, you're the least talented culinary student I've ever taught."
Qi Yuan fully embraced his role as shot-caller, barking out instructions relentlessly.
At this moment, the Holy Mother looked like an ordinary mortal woman. Under Qi Yuan's direction, she painstakingly finished a plate of braised fish.
"Not bad. For a first attempt, this is already great," Qi Yuan praised, looking at the charred fish.
After all, having scolded her earlier, it was time to praise her.
A mixture of scolding and praise was the true way to teach.
"Hurry up and eat some. See if your health improves," Qi Yuan urged.
He was genuinely intrigued.
Just what principle allowed the Heavenly Pillar to heal simply because she ate something?
The Holy Mother knit her brows, hesitating.
"Don't judge the fish by its looks; it actually tastes quite good," Qi Yuan continued coaxing her.
Either way, for a cultivator, no matter how awful the fish tasted, it was edible.
Besides, it had been cooked under his guidance, so there was a limit to how bad it could be.
Looking at the plate, the Holy Mother held the chopsticks between her slender fingers and picked up a piece of fish. Bringing it close to her lips, her brow furrowed tightly, her eyes filled with intense revulsion.
"Don't worry, it's not poisonous. Eating it won't make you sick," Qi Yuan encouraged.
The Holy Mother gave Qi Yuan a deep look before shoving the fish firmly into her mouth.
Her face went stark white in an instant, as if she had suffered a grievous wound.
Qi Yuan was taken aback.
Her reaction was that extreme?
"Is it that bad? How about you stop eating? The pot must be flawed. We'll switch to another pot and cook another batch." Flustered, Qi Yuan reached out to pat her back.
Yet his hand passed straight through her, unable to make contact.
They were separated by time and space, unable to touch one another.
"I'm fine." The Holy Mother's body trembled slightly, her brow furrowing alarmingly. Parting her vermilion lips, she forced herself to swallow the fish.
Her demeanor was as though she were swallowing lethal poison—worse than poison, even.
Qi Yuan's expression changed.
He finally believed it: she suffered from anorexia, and no ordinary case at that.
Just eating a single bite of fish... reduced her to this?
Utterly baffled, he stared at her and asked worriedly, "Are you alright?"
By now, the Holy Mother was swaying on her feet. Clad in her red dress, she collapsed onto the bamboo mat, eyes shut tight as a feverish sweat broke out across her forehead.
Yet she seemed freezing, her frame shuddering intermittently.
This sudden turn of events made no sense to Qi Yuan.
She was a Mythological figure.
Over a mere bite of fish?
Reduced to this state?
Back when she battled the clone of the Yang God, covered in wounds from head to toe, she hadn't trembled even once.
And when the Hongtang Great War began, he had seen her eating fish.
Back then, she had been perfectly calm.
What was going on?
"Are you alright...? Use a Dao technique to spit it out!" Qi Yuan looked down at her on the floor. Regrettably, looking at her gave him no useful information.
Separated by time and space, he couldn't help her at all.
At this moment, the Holy Mother seemed to have fallen asleep, offering no answer.
Roughly a hundred breaths later, her voice drifted out, faint as a mosquito's hum: "I'm fine. Perhaps after I sleep, everything will be better, and the Heavenly Pillar will mend completely."
Qi Yuan could only watch in helpless anxiety.
"What is going on? Did this happen whenever you ate in the past? Why did you force yourself to eat this time?" Qi Yuan was thoroughly perplexed.
About ten breaths passed before her weak voice came again. "I don't know. Wait until tomorrow."
Hearing that, Qi Yuan said no more so she wouldn't have to strain to reply.
He stood quietly by her side, thoughts churning as he pondered the situation.
The Holy Mother's Dao held that all things were filthy and that consuming them was harmful.
Could it be that she possessed a special physique that forbade consuming anything?
Yet no matter how special a constitution was, how could someone never eat?
Could it be... innate?
Suddenly, Qi Yuan remembered Qi Qi once mentioning that the Holy Mother of Inedia was suspected of possessing an Innate Stainless Physique.
Such a constitution was pure and immaculate, clear as glazed glass; partaking of mortal food would sully it with dust.
Yet her reaction was far worse than anticipated.
Could it be... she had a similar constitution, one that suffered an even more violent backlash than an Innate Stainless Physique?
How was he supposed to resolve this?
Solving her affliction and repairing the Heavenly Pillar were of utmost importance.
After who knew how long, a feeble voice broke the silence: "You're still here?"
"Yeah."
"The fish... I want to drink... no..."
"Hey, big sis, don't eat anymore!" Qi Yuan said hurriedly. "There's no broth with this fish. You're delirious."
If she kept eating, he feared she would drop dead before his eyes.
The Holy Mother said nothing more. She lay quietly on the floor, making no attempt to struggle up for more fish.
The room fell dead silent, devoid of even the sound of her breathing.
After a long while, Qi Yuan's gaze landed on the plate of fish.
[Ordinary braised fish, seemingly tainted by mortal filth.]
"Filth?"
Qi Yuan's thoughts raced.
"Because of this filth?"
He quickly looked away, inspecting other objects.
His eyes could reveal informational discrepancies.
However, he could only inspect the same fish once per day; the information wouldn't refresh until tomorrow.
Thus, he immediately turned his sight to other things, his mind dwelling on the word "filth."
He had previously discovered that actively focusing on a specific concept when looking at an object made it easier to obtain the desired result.
[The Holy Mother of Inedia's red dress, woven from ten-thousand-year-old weak silk, unstained by a speck of dust.]
...
[An ordinary bamboo mat, likewise tainted by mortal filth.]
[An ordinary fish, weighing three jin and two liang.]
Qi Yuan continuously scanned everything around him, especially the tens of thousands of fish in the lake.
He inspected them one by one, desperate for useful information.
Suddenly, his gaze froze.
[An ordinary fish, tainted by mortal filth. Purging the filth requires Glazed Flawless Blood.]
Qi Yuan stared blankly.
Glazed Flawless Blood?
Didn't he... possess the Glazed Flawless Golden Body?
Back in the Liufeng Realm, Bai Ze had gifted him the Great Sun Golden Lotus, which Qi Yuan used to forge the Glazed Flawless Golden Body.
The fact that he could devour a star to form a Golden Core was largely thanks to the Glazed Flawless Golden Body.
This golden body had boosted his strength immensely.
Yet compared to his Stellar Golden Core, it paled in comparison.
As a result, whenever he showed off, he flaunted his Golden Core and rarely mentioned the Glazed Flawless Golden Body.
To think the blood of the Glazed Flawless Golden Body... actually had such an effect!
Glazed Flawless Blood ran through his veins.
However, there wasn't much of it.
Draining it would harm him.
After all, his ability to contain the Stellar Golden Core relied on the sheer fortitude of the Glazed Flawless Golden Body.
Otherwise, he would have blown apart instantly.
Now, if he were to extract Glazed Flawless Blood... he would have to endure the agony...
"It's just a damn game, and it wants my blood now?!" Qi Yuan grumbled under his breath.
"Wait... my blood can't drip into the past anyway!"
Even if he wanted to draw blood, it shouldn't work.
"Let's give it a try!"
At this point, he had no other choice.
The Holy Mother was half-asleep.
The Heavenly Pillar remained broken.
So many gods had yet to be summoned.
The game wasn't cleared yet.
"Sigh, playing a game not only drains my energy, but now I have to waste my blood. If the clear rewards are lousy, I'm never letting this go!"
With a sharp gaze, Qi Yuan looked at his fingertip.
Under his focus, his finger turned translucent, glistening like pristine crystal.
A few drops of pure, clear blood squeezed from his fingertip, falling downward.
A wave of dizziness washed over him, and his face paled slightly.
A terrifying blaze erupted atop his Stellar Golden Core.
Qi Yuan's consciousness blurred for a brief moment as boundless flames seemed to scorch his flesh.
"This isn't asking for my blood—it's asking for my life!" Qi Yuan cursed inwardly.
His eyes remained fixed on the falling drops of blood and the fish on the plate.
Tension gripped him.
If it couldn't purify the food, he would have to reclaim the blood.
The next instant, astonishment flashed across his eyes.
The translucent blood seemed to cross the boundaries of space, dripping onto the fish before melting away without a trace.
The fish looked entirely unchanged, but the blood was gone.
Beside him, the Holy Mother seemed to catch a scent. Her delicate nose twitched slightly. "So hungry..."
She opened her eyes, and the pallor on her face receded significantly, replaced by a flush of rosiness. In her eyes, Qi Yuan saw a suppressed yearning.
"This fish... want to try eating it again?" Qi Yuan asked tentatively.
Right now, the Holy Mother was his golden goose.
Her health had to be restored so the Heavenly Pillar could flourish.
Only then could he visualize even more powerful deities!
A hint of doubt flickered in her eyes. Picking up the chopsticks, she took another piece of fish.
Putting it into her mouth, she chewed slowly.
Gradually, she began eating faster and faster, completely abandoning any ladylike grace.
Seeing this, Qi Yuan couldn't help but smile.
As long as she could eat, everything was fine.
He had feared she wouldn't be able to.
"Eat slowly. If you're still hungry, we can cook more," Qi Yuan said.
Mid-bite, the Holy Mother paused her chopsticks. She turned toward Qi Yuan's position, her gaze deep and carrying a faint trace of desire. "How did you do that?"
"Secret." Qi Yuan chuckled, declining to reveal the truth.
For some reason, looking into her eyes gave him an eerie sensation.
It felt like a beast eyeing its prey.
Staring at where Qi Yuan stood, she seemed to want to look into his eyes and draw the answer from them.
Yet she saw nothing and heard nothing.
"Are you afraid of me?" she asked inexplicably.
"Nope." Qi Yuan laughed.
That brief pang of dread had come and gone in a flash.
"Shouldn't I be the one afraid of you, Qi Yuan?" she remarked softly while eating. "I cannot see you, nor can I sense you, yet I can hear your voice.
"If I were a mortal, I would think I was being haunted by a ghost.
"Now, I am a Mythological being, standing at the pinnacle of this world, yet I still cannot perceive you.
"Isn't that... terrifying?"
The Holy Mother smiled brightly, her expression radiant yet tinged with helplessness.
"Put that way, it really is quite terrifying." Qi Yuan pondered. If he were in her shoes, he would certainly be on guard against someone he couldn't perceive.
The Holy Mother said no more, quietly chewing her fish.
The night was clear with sparse stars, and a cool breeze swept through. High on the Heavenly Pillar, the night felt somewhat cold.
Qi Yuan sat to one side, looking up at the sky full of stars.
"In the future, two of those stars in the sky will be mine."
He was showing off again.
Then he changed the subject.
"What kind of constitution do you have? Why... can't you eat?"
Chapter 220